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Piers Morgan exploded with anger on Good Morning Britain this morning and accused a fire service of axing Fireman Sam from promotional material because he's a 'white bloke'

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service dropped the 32-year-old character for being “outdated” and not “inclusive” enough after residents complained he “doesn’t reflect the fire service today.” The cartoon will be replaced by three new characters created in-house: fire extinguisher shaped Freddy, Filbert and Penelope.

Piers blew up live on air at Les Britzman, the Chief Fire Office for Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service who has stopped using the cartoon brand because it was not “inclusive” enough.

Les, who was on a live telephone link, stated the cartoon programme “Fireman Sam and the character is outdated” and it was the use of the word “man” which was the problem.

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"You don't like the fact a white bloke is seen to be the figurehead... and yet here's you, a white bloke, in charge of the very fire service that's banning the white bloke," raged Piers.

“There you are representing the [fire] service and you have a problem with using any promotional material that has a male firefighter at the head. It’s totally hypocritical,” he contnued.

"You have an objection for Fireman Sam who portrays the service showing a white man in charge and there you are, a white man in charge,” Piers pointed out to Les.

“Yes I am a white man, and across the fire and rescue there are 95 per cent of white male [firefighters] and this doesn’t reflect society, half our population is female,” Les argued.

The presenter then stated how the cartoon had a female firefighter called Penelope, as well as black and disabled characters.

“It couldn’t have a more [diverse] collection of people!” Piers stated. “[The show has been] bullied into doing everything he could possibly want and now you want to get rid of Fireman Sam!

“Why can’t fire services use the Fireman Sam brand? Why can’t you celebrate men and women? Why does everything have to be gender fluid?”

Les then explained his reason for veering away from the brand and said: “Lincolnshire is a modern brigade. We’re struggling to recruit firefighters. 50 per cent of the population are women and [the brand] it’s simply not appealing.

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The image portrayed to young girls, who are three, four or five years old, if we are sending the wrong message at that age, were making a problem in terms of recruitment [later on],” he added.

Piers questioned: “How many women in the world, have refused to apply for the service because of Fireman Sam? Can you name a single woman in this country who said ‘I’m not going to be in the fire service because of Fireman Sam?

“No woman has ever refused to join the fire service because of Fireman Sam.”

Fired-man Sam (Image: GMB)

Attempting to get a word in, Les said: “Many women don’t want to be firefighters because of images like Fireman Sam.”

But Piers cut him off and added: “Name on! You can’t because there aren’t any! You throw this tripe nonsense that women have watched Fireman Sam and put them off! Penelope is heroic in Fireman Sam!”

Les explained why he felt it was necessary to change the title of the cartoon to Firefighter Sam because it would help “expand the workforce”.

“Why do you have to have a 50/50 split, more men want to be Firefighters than men,” Piers hit back.

Attempting to reduce the noise, Susanna interjected and said: “Piers Morgan is going to self combust! Poor Les, he’s just trying to change the world and save lives!”